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A 49-26 victory over No. 25 Texas Tech on Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium was yet another example of Snyder’s in-season development. The same team that shockingly lost its opener to North Dakota State pummeled a ranked opponent on the road.

“We are not a team that is going to get pushed over,” K-State senior receiver Tramaine Thompson said. “A lot of people turned their backs on us when we had a couple of tough losses at the beginning of the year. For us to go into another team’s house and to play solid and … to come out with a win is a big positive for us.”

The Wildcats, 5-4 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12, have won three games in a row — all blowouts — and are within one victory of bowl eligibility. At 2-4, a postseason berth seemed iffy. But a fourth-straight bowl trip now seems all but certain. K-State might be favored in its final three games.

That wasn’t the case on Saturday. K-State entered this game as a three-point underdog. Without a road win on its resume, some thought an opposing crowd of 54,609 and Texas Tech’s pass-happy offense might be too much for K-State to handle.

But K-State proved early it was ready for the challenge.

On the Wildcats’ opening drive, John Hubert took a handoff and zoomed up the left side for a 63-yard touchdown. K-State led 14-10 at the end of the first quarter without attempting a pass.

Hubert rushed for 157 yards in one of the finest games of his career. In many ways, his improvement mirrors that of K-State as a whole. He failed to rush for 60 yards in four of the first five games but has rushed for at least 90 in every game since.

“I am running with the mentality of giving it all I’ve got,” Hubert said. “I’ve only got a few games left, and I just want to make the best of them. When I look back, I want to know I gave my all.”

His offensive line also played at a high level, opening up huge holes from start to finish. For K-State, it was smash-mouth football at its finest.

“We knew what they were going to do, and they came right at us and we couldn’t stop them,” Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said. “We didn’t have answers.”

K-State finally threw the ball in the second quarter, taking Texas Tech, which fell to 7-3 and 4-3 in the Big 12, by surprise. The Wildcats went into halftime leading 35-10, the most points they had scored in a first half since 2009.

Jake Waters, Daniel Sams and Hubert all ran for touchdowns by that point, and Thompson caught a 20-yard pass from Waters for the final score of the half.

“I think we have improved a good deal,” Snyder said. “Not as much as I would like, but we are getting better week in and week out. … Collectively, I thought we probably played as well today as we have at any time.”

K-State played so well that the game was essentially over at halftime, but Texas Tech made things somewhat interesting by scoring the first nine points of the third quarter.

Then came a surprise onside kick that could have drastically swung momentum the Red Raiders’ way, but the Wildcats emerged from a scrum with the ball and went on to win handily.

The rout featured 81 rushing yards and two touchdowns from Sams. It featured 65 passing yards, 38 rushing yards and three total touchdowns from Waters. And it included Texas Tech, the nation’s seventh-ranked offense, switching quarterbacks and struggling for points.

K-State senior safety Ty Zimmerman closed out the romp in style by returning an interception 43 yards for a touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter that sent fans scurrying for the exits.

The Wildcats kept fighting and eventually left the field in higher spirits than they have showed all year.

Even their celebrations have improved.

“We are excited. We are confident. We’ve gotten the ball rolling,” Waters said. “This is how we wish we could have started. You can’t do anything about that, but we could probably play a little bit better, too. To get things rolling like this is really exciting.”